Hadouken: the special martial arts move exploding on social media

IMAGES of super-human Japanese schoolgirls performing incredible Street Fighter moves have spurred a new trend, showing devotees apparently flying through the air.

Anyone growing up in the early 1990s will have spent more than a few hours playing Street Fighter, the wildly popular video game franchise: best seller Street Fighter II exceeded $1.5 billion in revenue.

More than twenty years on, a new generation of fans in Japan have fallen in love with Street Fighter's signature move, the so-called Hadouken (or Hadoken), where contestants send a surge of spirit energy flying towards an opponent.

HadokenSource:Supplied

The new trend has been spurred by the recent release of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, the 18th full-length release of the anime franchise that gave birth to Street Fighter.

Japan is a country that can lay claim to many an internet craze but thanks to social media these expertly choreographed images are particularly brilliant.

HadoukenSource:Supplied

HadokenSource:Supplied

Teens perform mid-air special move as the shutter clicks, then upload them to Twitter.